Friday, May 4, 2012

Back in 2008 when I transitioned from the sportswriting world to the publishing industry, I found myself with a lot of free time at work. Being an avid reader of blogs and a writer myself, a novel idea came to me one day while I was staring at the clock waiting for 5 o'clock to come: Why not start you own blog?

So one day, I just up and did it, creating this here site and naming it after an inside joke I started with some friends. You see, back before the Phillies were perennial contenders, they sucked. Hard. The winning was few and far between, and the star power even fewer and farther between. So when word spread that the Phillies were building a new stadium - their current home at Citizens Bank Park - I began calling it the House that Glanville Built, after Penn grad and former Phillies centerfielder Doug Glanville, a good player and one of favorites, but hardly a star. Naturally, it seemed like the perfect name for my long-winded, absurd missives.

At the same time, I also had to come up with a pseudonym, an Internet pen name. The reason for that was twofold: 1. Many bloggers had pseudonyms in keeping with the Internet spirit of anonymity; and 2. I was doing some posting during work hours. So I tried to think of a name, and it came pretty quickly actually. You see, the Beastie Boys are one of my favorite musical acts of all time, and my favorite Beastie Boys song is "Paul Revere." Then I threw Reverend in front of it because it sounded kind of catchy and I did a whole of preachy writing in the early days about swinging at the first pitch after the pitcher just walked the bases loaded and the like. It seemed like a good fit. Not a very exciting story, but that's how the name was born.

I bring this all up because in case you haven't heard, Adam Yauch, aka MCA from the Beastie Boys, died today of cancer. Beyond being a musician, Yauch was also an avid basketball fan. I saw the Beastie Boys perform at Penn's Landing back when I was in college, and he was talking about how heard of this sick point guard here in Philadelphia named Maalik Wayns, back before Maalik was a McDonald's All-American. Oh, and the Beastie Boys played "Paul Revere" at that show, a song they hadn't performed live outside of their hometown New York City in more than five years, almost as if they knew I was attendance. MCA also shot one of the coolest basketball documentaries that's come in a while,Gunnin' for that #1 Spot.". He truly was a man who brought music and sport together.